The present invention relates generally to a system for tracking postage, and more particularly to a system for tracking postage through the various distribution channels of such postage.
The mailing of anthrax-tainted letters in the United States mail stream by bio-terrorists in late 2001 and the plethora of hoaxes which followed have underscored the need for the traceability of the mail. Knowing where and when a letter was mailed from its cancellation provides only limited clues as to the homebase of the sender, and gives no evidence as to whether the sender traveled some distance from his or her home to divert investigation from his or her immediate locale. The news media has speculated, for instance, that the same individual may have been responsible for mailing letters containing anthrax in late 2001 from St. Petersburg, Fla. and Trenton, N.J. However, one can only speculate as to whether the sender of these letters is from either of these places, or whether he or she traveled possibly great distances to mail the tainted letters from these locations.
It is presumed that criminal activity using the mail may take many forms, and the more information that investigators of such criminal activity has, the more effective they will be in narrowing the focus of the investigation. In the case of bio-terrorism, it would seem likely that envelopes would have been carefully prepared in a terrorist""s laboratory, necessitating the purchase of preprinted envelopes or stamps, quite possibly near where he or she lived. Knowing where and approximately when these supplies were purchased may provide important clues as to the whereabouts of such terrorists.
Several systems have been proposed which generally touch upon the idea of tracking postage. U.S. Pat. No. 5,917,925, for instance, discloses an authenticating, tracking, and anti-counterfeiting indicia system which can track postal fee collection of mailpieces. The system includes a control computer, one or more host computers which cooperate with the control computer, a marking system, and a field reader system, which are all compatible and can be physically linked via data transmission links. An identifiable mark is placed on the mailpieces, which enables subsequent inspection. The mailpieces can be field inspected with a field reader to verify proper fee payment, to determine the authenticity of the mark, or to track the distribution of the mailpieces.
This system, however, suffers from a number of disadvantages. One such disadvantage is that the system itself must be used to generate and print the marking on the mailpieces (i.e., the system operates in this manner similar to a postage meter). The system however, is not useable with postage (e.g., stamps and preprinted envelopes) which are purchased from or through the U.S. Postal Service. (The ""925 patent itself states at column 1, line 42 that the system disclosed therein is intended to xe2x80x9cenable a user to avoid using postage stamps and instead encode mailpieces with authenticity data . . . xe2x80x9d). While such postage meter type systems may be efficiently used by medium to large sized companies, requiring their use by small business owners and individuals rather than allowing such businesses and persons to use postage stamps or preprinted envelopes, is undesirable.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,130,613 discloses a radio frequency postage stamp which includes a substrate with first and second surfaces, the first surface being printed with indicia indicating a postage value. An antenna is formed on the second surface and a radio frequency identification circuit chip is secured to the second surface and coupled to the antenna. A layer of adhesive is also disposed on the second surface. The radio frequency identification circuit chip has stored thereon a preprogrammed postage value. However, the postage stamp disclosed in the ""613 patent suffers from a number of disadvantages. One of such disadvantages is that the postage stamp disclosed thereon does not employ any type of system for tracking the distribution thereof. Another disadvantage is that incorporating a radio frequency identification circuit chip and an associated antenna into postage stamps would greatly increase the complexity of manufacture and therefore the costs associated therewith.
What is desired, therefore, is a distribution based system for tracking postage which can be used to determine the location and approximate time of purchase of such postage, which is relatively simple to implement, which does not significantly increase the cost of manufacturing such postage, and which can be implemented with the current system of using stamps and preprinted envelopes.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a distribution based system for tracking postage which can be used to determine the location and approximate time of purchase of such postage.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a distribution based system for tracking postage having the above characteristics and which is relatively simple to implement.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a distribution based system for tracking postage having the above characteristics and which does not significantly increase the cost of manufacturing such postage.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a distribution based system for tracking postage having the above characteristics and which can be implemented with the current system of using stamps and preprinted envelopes.
These and other objects of the present invention are achieved by provision of a distribution based system for tracking postage. A distribution unit is formed from a plurality of postage items, each of the postage items having a tracking number printed thereon. The distribution unit includes a machine readable tracking identifier indicative of the tracking number printed on the postage items which form the distribution unit. A machine reader is provided for reading the machine readable tracking identifier as the distribution unit is distributed and for determining the tracking number therefrom. A computer system receives the tracking number from the machine reader and stores in a memory the tracking number along with a time and date the distribution unit was distributed.
Preferably, the machine readable tracking identifier comprises a bar code, and the memory comprises a database. The system may be used to track various postage items, such as postage stamps and/or preprinted envelopes. The tracking number may be printed on the postage items overtly with visible ink or covertly with invisible ink with an ultra violet tracer. The distribution unit may comprise a sales unit, such as a coil or booklet of postage stamps, or may comprise a shipping unit, such as a carton of postage items.
In one embodiment, the computer system comprises a local computer located at a point of sale of sales unit, a central computer, and a central database accessible by the central computer. The local computer receives the tracking number from the machine reader and transmits to the central computer via a communications link the tracking number along with the time and date the sales unit was sold. The central computer stores in the database the tracking number along with the time and date the sales unit was sold. The local computer may optionally receive purchaser information about a purchaser of the sales unit, and transmit to the central computer the purchaser information with the tracking number and the time and date the sales unit was sold. In this case, the central computer stores in the database the purchaser information along with the tracking number and the time and date the sales unit was sold.
In another embodiment, the computer system comprises a local computer located at a shipping location from which a shipping unit is shipped and a database accessible by the local computer. The local computer receives information about a destination of the shipping unit, receives the tracking number from the machine reader and stores in the database the tracking number along with the time and date the shipping unit was shipped and the destination of the shipping unit.
The invention and its particular features and advantages will become more apparent from the following detailed description considered with reference to the accompanying drawings.